Red Bull Hit the Streets: QueenArrow is coming to South Africa
Kenyan Tekken star Sylvia “QueenArrow” Gathoni has become somewhat of an ambassador for wannabe pro gamers in Africa. Now she is coming to show her stuff at Red Bull Hit the Streets in South Africa
In 2019 QueenArrow began to be noticed in the Tekken fighting games scene in Nairobi, Kenya - competing in events regularly. While she might not have always been in the top spot, her consistent drive to improve and passion for gaming as a whole turned heads. Now, she will be flying to South Africa to compete in Red Bull Hit the Streets, in the hope of making it into the top qualifiers to compete in the Grand Finals and a chance to attend Red Bull Kumite.
QueenArrow shared her career start and how she planned to use her law degree to improve gaming in Africa with Red Bull in 2020.
She chatted to us after announcing her trip to South Africa to share a bit more about her competitive Tekken career and her expectations around the growing fighting games competition.
You’ll be flying to South Africa to compete in Red Bull Hit the Streets and try qualify for the Grand Finals. How did this come about?
I was honestly taken by surprise by all of this in all honesty. When the Kenyan Red Bull office contacted me and told me I’d be going, I was over the moon! This is my first major in South Africa and I am ecstatic!
Have you had a chance to see some of South Africa’s Tekken players in action?
I’ve had chances to interact with Iggy, Callym, KingLing, Dax and Unifire. I’m honestly nervous about facing them all since I know they are the strongest players there. Iggy has a really strong Heihachi and Dragunov (and a few other pocket characters, so I’m very unsure about what to expect). Callym has a super strong backdash and his Eddy is annoying. Dax’s Jin is strong and I know I’m in for a challenge since Jin is a problematic matchup for me. I’ve played with Unifire in ranked and he’s quite knowledgeable about the game so I know I’ll have to work on my overall adaptation to win. KingLing is a great player as well and also plays Xiaoyu so I need to work on my mirror matchup knowledge.
You’ve definitely done your research! What other sort of preparation have you done leading up to the competition?
I’ve been training with members of my community who have the experience playing with the South African community. We’ve been working on the problematic match-ups and game situations. I feel better prepared about what to expect when Hit the Streets starts.
You shared your story with Red Bull around this time last year. What has happened with your professional Tekken career since then?
Oooh buddy! I have a doozy for you! My career has grown in leaps and bounds. I have become better at Tekken and I'm loving the improvement thus far. Still a long way to go, regardless. I have also been featured on CNN, France24, the DW and Asahi Shimbun. I’ve got shoutouts from the big man Harada and Michael Murray and I’ve become more acknowledged in the fighting games community and gaming community as a whole.
The legend himself, Ryan Hart, will be commentating the Hit the Streets Finals. Are you excited to have him shoutcast your games?
I’ve been watching Ryan Hart since my college days, when he commentated on the Tekken World Tour, and I’m stoked to learn from him as well if we get the chance to pick his brain. I’d love him to say that I am one of the players with the most potential. My goal is to be one of the greats from the African region and I’ll do my best to serve the damn sauce.
How important is a competition like Hit the Streets for the African Tekken scene?
It is important because our scene needs a lot of attention. We’ve seen the Pakistani scene grow as a result of the hard work Arslan Ash put in EVO and the other competitions he attended. I feel if we had more eyes on the continent, we’d discover more players with the potential to show the world what we can actually do and it’d build up to more international majors being held here.
With your consent, this website shall use additional cookies (including third party cookies) or similar technologies to make our site work, for marketing purposes and to improve your online experience.
You can revoke your consent via the Cookie Settings in the footer of the website at any time. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy and in the Cookie Settings directly below.
Privacy Preference Center
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
More information
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
Performance
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Third Party Content Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by third-party providers of third-party content that is embedded on our site. They may be used by those companies to load, display, or in other ways to enable you to use that content. As this third-party content is provided by autonomous companies on their own responsibility, those companies may also use these cookies for their own additional purposes, such as marketing. Please refer to the privacy policies of those companies for that information. If you do not allow these cookies, you will not be able to use this third-party content embedded on our site, such as videos, music, or maps.